Back in July I posted an omnibus book report, and here I am doing so again. I don't know why I've fallen out of the habit of considering my books individually, but so it goes. These would be nos. 20–22 in this year's list.
First is Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, which I finished back at the beginning of October. I loved this book: it is rich with people, with history, with life, but also with darkness, because one of the themes it takes on is racism, as seen in the 1850s and 60s in Kentucky and Louisiana and the world of horse racing, and again in 2019, when a young Black art historian seeks to track down the painter of a portrait of a horse that he finds in his neighbor's trash. He happens to live in Washington, DC, and links up with an anatomist at the Smithsonian. Soon the full skeleton of a horse is discovered in the Smithsonian's attic, belonging to the famed thoroughbred Lexington, who was trained and loved by a young slave, Jarret, and who for 20 years held the record as the world's fastest horse. Lexington actually existed (as does the skeleton), and Brooks based her story on real people as well, but with a big dose of imagination to bring it all to life. It is beautifully written and constructed. I was enjoying it so much that I lugged the hardback around England with me, wanting to bring it home and share it with some friends who I think will enjoy it too. I need to get it to them!
Second was Michael Connelly's The Narrows (2004), a sequel to The Poet (1996), which I read years ago. But not remembering the details didn't make much difference. The Narrows brings back a couple of Connelly's earlier characters—FBI profiler Terry McCaleb from Blood Work (rather briefly, though he certainly kicks off the action) and FBI agent Rachel Walling from The Poet—and of course features now-PI Harry Bosch. It ranges from Catalina Island to the eastern California desert near Zzyzx and Las Vegas and back to LA, including a stormy night on the LA River. It's a sort of cat-and-mouse story, since the bad guy is known to all. It was entertaining in the way all of Connelly's books are. And I seem to have given up reading them in order, which is liberating!
And finally, S. A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland, his first book (2020) (I reported on his second book, Razorblade Tears, here). It is a fast-paced thriller set in the hinterlands of Virginia, featuring Beauregard "Bug" Montage, a Black car repair shop owner whose business is suffering from competition by a new franchise, and he's becoming increasingly strapped for cash. He used to be a driver in heists of various sorts, and he very unwisely, but in desperation, bites when a redneck he's worked with in the past—whom he doesn't trust a whit, though he convinces himself it'll be quick—snags him for the robbery of a jewelry store. Well, of course, it isn't quick, and really bad guys get involved, and... Well, I won't give it away. However, this is more than just a thriller. Cosby does a great job of taking us into his protagonists' conflicted, messy, stubborn minds as they struggle to figure out what's right, what's necessary, and, especially, who and what they really love.
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